Converging on the Crosby CLOSED

The Crosby

400 N. Broadway

Santa Ana, CA. 92701

If you blink, you are going to miss the Crosby. Above is all the signage you will see that the Crosby exists. I had read about this place on Yelp, and it has received good reviews. Then someone told me that this place has the best hamburger in the OC. So I had the motivation to go; now, all I needed was a spark. That spark came to fruition by Katie, and I chose to go to a play in the downtown arts district. So away we went on a Friday night.

We got to the Crosby at 6:00 on a Friday night. It was a chore trying to find parking, but we found some street parking a few blocks away. I had made reservations, but there were plenty of tables available. A few after-work parties were going on, but the place was not packed.  I liked that the walls were decorated with old boom boxes. I might have had one or two of those old models. Let's see if the food will be music to our ears.

The Crosby has an interesting happy hour. $1 Pabst Blue Ribbons and $3 Sangria. I got one PBR (just for laughs), and Katie got a Sangria. She liked the sangria but did not finish it. I am not a sangria person, but I liked this flavor. It was not too fruity and not too much like wine. It was right in the middle. Also on the happy hour menu is the Chili Cheese Fries for $5. I thought these were not so great, but they are not my thing. I like chili with beef; this was vegetarian chili, and I am not a big fan of sweet potato fries. Katie, a fan of both of these things, really liked these both a lot, so we will go with what she says.

For Katie's dinner, she got Creole Shrimp. This is linguine pasta with a spicy creole sauce and brandy sauteed shrimp. She could not say enough good things about this dish, even going as far as saying that this was the best pasta dish she could remember having in recent memory. She thought there was just enough heat on this, enough not to distract from the plate. She also liked that this had just the right amount of sauce for her taste. High praise from Katie. I tried this and would have liked a little more heat, but I like spicy things.

So when someone says the best burger in Orange county, that is what I have to get. This is the Smoked Angus Beef Burger. This burger featured a cavalcade of things on it. It had caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, greens, muenster cheese, spicy ketchup, fried egg, and apple cider brandy aioli. Wow, what a mouthful. My first bite of this burger brought to mind a meatloaf I had before. All of the flavors on this burger worked well with each other. It was not the best burger in the OC, but it was good. I was not so fond of the fries. They were truffled fries, but the flavor seemed to be a little off for me.

At the end of the meal, we could not resist the Crosby Sundae. When I think sundae, I usually believe ice cream in a glass, but as you can see, this is not that. This is two towers of deep-fried tortillas stuffed with cinnamon and bananas, with three scoops of ice cream. We both thought that this banana foster-type dessert was pretty good. Not too rich, and just the right amount of ice cream. When I saw only three small scoops, I was worried there would not be enough, but it turned out cool.

Katie loved the Crosby and is looking forward to going back again. I liked it well enough to try it again, also. The menu changes every other month, and they have a chef's selection menu with some higher-end items. Most of those piqued my interest, and now that I have had the burger here, I can move on from that. The service was friendly and casual. The atmosphere was a little trendy, but we felt comfortable inside.

Out of five penguins (because Sidney Crosby plays for them), five being best to zero being worst, The Crosby gets three penguins.

For more information on The Crosby, click here: http://thisisthecrosby.com/